On Friday, I drove to the address Lacey Townsend had messaged me and parked in front of the building. When I announced myself at reception, the woman behind the desk blushed. She knew who I was.

I flashed a brilliant smile at her. She fumbled on the computer, pressing backspace a lot more than she should on the keyboard, before she finally told me I could go up.

I rode the elevator to the third floor and followed the directions to Lacey’s office.

The door was open, and she wasn’t in her office when I arrived. I walked in and waited for her. The office was neat and tidy. It looked like a place where work was the main concern, but she had added a few personal touches.

I walked around her desk, glancing at her things. She had photos of her and another woman on the desk, a plant beneath the window, and ornaments along the top shelf of her bookcase.

I didn’t see photos of a man anywhere. It didn’t look like she had anyone she was serious about.

That was always a good sign.

Yeah, I knew I wasn’t supposed to be interested in the person hired to fix my image. But how could a guy help it— with a woman as smoking hot and ambitious as Lacey?

“Mr. Bell,” she said, as she walked through the door of her office, and I nearly jumped. Catching myself, I cleared my throat in what I hoped was a casual gesture. “You’re early.”

I nodded, walking back to the side of her desk I was supposed to be on. I looked her up and down. She wore black pants and a white blouse that offset her dark hair very well. Her eyes were sharp and bright.

When she walked, she moved her hips from side to side. Her breasts were on the larger side, and her blouse traced her figure perfectly. A small amount of cleavage was poking out again. I couldn’t help but think she had done that just for my benefit.

She cleared her throat this time, and I looked at her eyes again. She didn’t look flustered that I’d been staring. She wasn’t blushing.

What was it with this woman? She seemed unimpressed by my advances. Other women would be eating out of my hand right now.

It made me want her more. What was it they said about forbidden fruit? It didn’t fall far from the tree of desire? It made your mouth water even more because you knew it was the juiciest kind?

I was mixing my metaphors. But Lacey seemed to have that kind of effect on me. My mind was spinning and I wasn’t able to stop it.

“Take a seat, Mr. Bell,” she said.

“Hanson, please,” I said.

“Hanson,” she said and nodded.

I liked the way my name sounded in her mouth. I could imagine her on her back, naked, her eyes closed and her lips mumbling, or screaming, my name.

“Let’s get down to business,” she said.

“What did you have in mind?”

I had an idea of what business I would like to get down to, with her.

She glanced at me. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking. Did she even like what she saw?

She must have worked with a lot of famous people, but I didn’t rely on my fame. I was skilled in other areas, and I got what I wanted, when I wanted it.

“Have I mentioned how good you look today?” I asked when she didn’t answer me.

“Look, Mr. Bell… Hanson. Let’s be honest with each other. You’re not the kind of person that wants to go as far as a conversation with a woman. I’m not here to do anything else than talk. We’re going to have to find middle ground if we’re going to work together.”

I smiled. “So, a little bit of both?”

She didn’t look impressed.

“Don’t,” she said. “Women fall at your feet. I understand that’s what you’re used to. I want you to see me as an equal, a business partner, if you will. Someone who will give you what you need, not what you want.”

I shrugged. “And if those things are one and the same?”

“What you need is to salvage your reputation. What you want is to get into my pants. I think we both know which one we’re going to prioritize here.”

“Are you always this cold?”

She looked at me, and her eyes were the color of the sky, so bright I felt like I could see for miles.

“I’m good at my job,” she said. It wasn’t an answer. “Speaking of which, we’re going to start off your rehabilitation with a bang.”

I grinned again. A bang. She shook her head, realizing what she’d done.

“Seriously,” she said. “You’re like a teenager.”

I shrugged.

“What did you have in mind?” I asked her again.

She didn’t respond. Again. She was complicated. She just wasn’t turned on by me or by my approach. She was a challenge. That made me want her even more, because, like I said, I happened to like challenges.

“What are you doing this weekend?” I asked.

“I’m going out with you,” she said.

I blinked at her. “What?”

This chick was two steps ahead of me, it seemed. Fucking women these days. So damn driven.

“We are attending a charity event tomorrow evening. They’re taking donations for a new children’s wing at Jackson Memorial Hospital.”

I rolled my eyes. It wasn’t what I’d had in mind when she’d said she would go out with me. Of course, she was messing with me. Hot, unavailable, and apparently, full of shit. This was exactly the kind of woman I wanted to pursue.

I shook my head. “I’ve got something planned already tomorrow.”

“Cancel it. This is important.”

“Can’t we do it another Saturday?”

“Sure,” she said. “I’ll call them and ask them to move the entire charity for your convenience.”

I realized she was being sarcastic with me.

“Funny,” I said.

She looked up at me, her face still as closed off as before. I didn’t know what to think of her or how to judge her reactions. She looked completely uninterested. It made me want to try harder and harder to get her to crack and get something out of her.

A couple of orgasms would be a great start.

“It’s a formal event. Black tie. I expect you to wear a suit. We should meet up a little earlier to discuss your approach. So be ready by six.”

I shook my head. “You didn’t once ask if I want to attend this event.”

She looked up at me. Her eyes were piercing on the surface but underneath they looked deep enough to drown in.

“You’re right. I didn’t,” she finally said. “But did your team ask if you wanted to be suspended for a DUI? Did you ask all those women in the tabloids with you if they wanted to be dragged down with you in your spiral of embarrassment?”

I gaped at her, speechless for once in my life.

“Looks like we’re on the same page, then,” she said.

She wasn’t fucking around. Lacey Townsend had been serious when she’d said, “let’s get down to business.”

“Just so you know,” I told her. “That DUI charge? It was bogus.”

“That’s what they all say,” she said.

“I’m serious.” I looked at her, pleading with her to listen. Finally she stared back, ready for my explanation. “I never even drive myself. I have a chauffeur. I was just in the limo. I was sleeping.”

“Well, Florida has a law that says if the keys are in your hand or even near you, then that satisfies the intent element,” she said, with the knowledgeable air of someone who had plenty of clients who had had DUIs before.

“Exactly,” I told her. “So, that’s the issue. I shouldn’t have gotten a DUI. But it wasn’t as bad at it sounds.”

She shrugged, unimpressed.

“When it comes down to it, it doesn’t really matter,” she says. “It makes no difference to the public how you got the DUI, because they don’t pay attention to the details. They just care that you got one. And now, they care what you’re going to do about it.”

She was a tough cookie. What was I going to do about it? I had no clue. I had just been planning to live my life but apparently she and Coach Thompson had other plans for me.

“What am I doing here?” I asked.

“You’re here because you need your image cleaned up if you want people to see you differently. Right now, you’re the party guy, the guy who gets the girls and the booze. Not the wins.”

I frowned. “I get wins.”

She shook her head. “But that’s not what you’re famous for. You can’t tell me you like the way you’re being portrayed in the media.”

I shrugged. “I don’t really care.”

Lacey nodded. “I can see that. Maybe it’s time you start caring. Your career is dependent on your image. It’s already gotten you in trouble.”

I shook my head. “What got me in trouble is an unfortunate car crash.”

“You’re right. It was an unfortunate crash. But you know what they’re saying about that. That it was just a matter of time before something like that happened. That you were heading in that direction for a long time. That you celebrated your survival from that crash with two more women.”

I just blinked at her. It was true. They did say those things about me. But that didn’t change how women saw me or how well I played football.

“If I’m going to give up who I am for the sake of other people, there will be nothing left.”

Lacey nodded. “I understand. But I’m not trying to change you. I’m just going to ask you to change what you show the rest of the world.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “So, I don’t have to give up alcohol or women?”

She looked at me long enough without answering that I got the idea. I was going to have to change, wasn’t I?

“For a while, you might want to watch what you’re doing.”

I rolled my eyes. “What if I don’t want to?”

I realized how childish it sounded. She’d already called me a teenager once. But I didn’t want to do what she told me. I didn’t want to watch what I was doing. I wasn’t used to it. And I didn’t want to have to start.

“Look, Hanson, let’s be honest with each other. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. No one is holding a gun to your head and telling you that you must change. But if you don’t, you’re out of a job. All your hard work would have been for nothing. You can’t have your cake and eat it, too.”

I shook my head. “I never really understood that saying.”

A voice in the back of my head told me maybe that was because I’d always gotten what I wanted. Fuck. She was already messing with my mind.

Lacey shook her head. “I’ve been hired to do my job. I’m not going to stop doing it until I’m told to let it go by my boss. So, until then, you’re stuck with me, and we’re going to go through the motions to get you socially acceptable.”

I didn’t like being told what to do, but I didn’t see another way out. I nodded.

“I’ll see you on Saturday at six,” she said. “Don’t be late.”

I didn’t know what to say. She was a battle axe. An interesting, stubborn, sexy-as-hell battle axe.  Her office phone rang, and she picked up the receiver, pressing her hand over the mouth-piece.

“Can you find your way out?” she asked.

I nodded. She pressed the phone against her ear. I’d been dismissed.

I, Hanson Bell, the man that women never rejected, had just literally been told to see myself out. This woman was more of a challenge than any I had ever met before. And, probably because of that very fact, I found myself wanting her even more.